Radiohead’s Trippy Return Rivals Pink Floyd, Neil Young: Review

Thom Yorke of Radiohead plays `Give Up the Ghost' and other acoustic songs in a solo set at the Big Chill Festival in England, 2010. Yorke's band has released ``King of Limbs,'' a studio album featuring some of his material. Photographer: Mark Beech, Bloomberg.

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Thom Yorke has been spooking
audiences in his solo concerts with a new song called “Give Up
the Ghost.”

Yorke’s quavering voice sounds like Neil Young pretending
to be a banshee. The falsetto “don’t haunt me, don’t hurt me”
gets more terrifyingly beautiful with each repetition.

The song’s a highlight of “The King of Limbs” -- the new
album by Yorke’s band Radiohead -- that’s a collection of
fragile charm, skewed dance beats and Pink Floyd-style trips.

The perverse Britons have sprung the album on the world
earlier than announced via an Internet download. That’s not
surprising since its 2007 predecessor, “In Rainbows,” also
bypassed the record companies. This time, there’s no “pay
whatever you want” option. Purchasers visiting Radiohead’s
website have to find their way past preachy statements about
saving ocean stocks and trees. (The title “The King of Limbs”
refers to a famous oak in Savernake forest, England.)

The website also offers a video of Yorke doing a jerky
dance to the tune of the single “Lotus Flower.”

“I’ll set you free,” he promises, as his voice floats
above dissonant drums. Yorke’s unworldly singing sounds equally
disconnected from the music on the opener “Bloom,” amid its
washes of synthesizer and Eno-style ambient piano.

The lyrics are so terse and oblique they could mean almost
anything, which I guess is the point.

“You stole it all, give it back” might be a comment about
bankers or politicians on “Morning Mr. Magpie.” Yorke goes on
to say his melody has been stolen, so he might simply be making
a comment about plagiarism or indeed magpies.

Vinyl Music

The eight songs last just 37 minutes, though there are
clues that more material will follow. The closer is called
“Separator,” as if it marks a break between discs, and a
planned box set is due in May with two 10-inch vinyl records
alongside the CD, giving room for extra music.

This latest outing isn’t the sort of mainstream rock with
which Radiohead started its career -- 1993’s “Pablo Honey,”
distinguished by the hit “Creep,” the excellent “The Bends”
from 1995, and 1997’s overrated “OK Computer.”

Nor is “The King of Limbs” a work of pure experimentation
such as the bold “Kid A” or its less successful follow-ups
“Amnesiac” and “Hail to the Thief.” It’s closer to Yorke’s
solo effort “The Eraser.”

This is no masterpiece, just a likeable collection of quiet
charm, worthy of repeated listening.